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The background

Last year, The Herald revealed how the council had to beg the Government for more money to prop up social care - a move political rivals feared was 'too late'.

Council chiefs were also hammered for expecting families to cough up more in taxes at a time when they've seen the number of waste collections slashed and seen libraries across communities close.

Addressing members at a key debate over the issue in November, Southway Labour councillor, Jonny Morris, said: "What Plymouth people see is their bin collections have been halved, libraries have closed and that they now need to park in the city centre and on the highway in the evening, and that council tax went up by four per cent last year."

And Labour councillor Jon Taylor warned hammering low-income families with further tax rises will "shift the cost of care to those who need it the most."

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Tory council leader, Cllr Ian Bowyer, said his administration were taking the 'tough decision' his rivals were afraid of making.

The senior politician warned 60 per cent of the council's coffers were now going on funding social care alone - leaving little for everything else.

He said: "This is a cross-party issue. We are not going to get out of this by just slinging mud across the table. We need to work together."

Meanwhile, 'escalated action' is to be taken to bring down a whopping £3.27m overspend in the 2017/2018 budget.

Cllr Bowyer said the estimated blackhole in the budget would only remain if the council sat back and did nothing - which he said wasn't the case.

The national picture

The planned increases in council tax bills nationwide come against a backdrop in which 80% of councils fear for their financial stability.

Council tax can be hiked by up to 3% this year, in line with inflation, before a referendum is triggered, while authorities can also levy an additional “precept” to raise money for spending on social care.

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The greatest immediate pressure on budgets came in children’s services (nearly 32% of councils), followed by adult social care (nearly 28%), and housing and homelessness (19%).

Adult social care was the greatest long-term pressure (nearly 38%), the survey said.

Surrey, Britain’s richest county, is among the worst hit in the country and Bureau of Investigative Journalism documents warn its county council faces a £105m funding gap, the equivalent to a 12.8% increase.

A Surrey County Council spokesman said: “We’ve agreed a three-year budget despite the severe financial pressure we – and councils across the country – are under due to rising demand for our services and falling government funding.

“We’ve been successfully managing the growing need for adult social care, children’s and other key services partly through making savings of £540m since 2010 and have made sure we keep within our overall budget.”

Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of LGiU, said the figures offered few surprises.

He said: “Councils are on the edge. They are for the most part holding services together (though a significant minority are not). But they can only do this this by raising council tax, increasing charging and draining their reserves.

“The system is unsustainable and needs far more fundamental reform than is presently on offer. It’s simply not acceptable that we don’t know how local government will work post 2020.

“A child is being referred to council children’s services every 49 seconds on a daily basis and councils started more than 500 child protection investigations every day last year – up from 200 a decade ago.

“This unprecedented surge in demand shows no sign of abating.”

- A total of 113 individual councils responded to the survey, representing a third of all English local authorities.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Our finance settlement strikes a balance between relieving growing pressure on local government whilst ensuring that hard-pressed taxpayers do not face excessive bills.

“We have listened to representations made from councils and delivered on these with extra funding.

“Overall councils will see a real-term increase in resources over the next two years, more freedom and fairness and with a greater certainty to plan and secure value for money.